Arkansas Blog

An open line: Plus what's wrong with Kansas and Ole Miss?

Here's an open line for Saturday pleasure, plus some forwarded links from elsewhere with Arkansas relevance:

* KANSAS:The state Supreme Court there has struck down the latest inadequate attempt by the Kansas legislature to provide equal and adequate education funding. This fight, which could lead to school shutdowns (or obliteration of the Supreme Court), stems from Gov. Sam Brownback's massive tax cutting. It was supposed to lift the state into unparalleled prosperity. Arkansas Republican politicians have had similar dreams but have so far been saved by the Obamacare Medicaid expansion money that Brownback rejected. Some day, building highways and cutting taxes with Obamacarel money will run its course in Arkansas. College kids already understand the drill, with ever higher tuitions at institutions slowly starved of state support. Grade schools next.

* MISSISSIPPI: The odor you smell is a corruptfootball program at Ole Miss, led by funny business in the era of coach Hugh Freeze, Arkansa States's gift to the Rebels. But that isn't the only Arkansas angle in the NCAA book thrown at Ole Miss. Academic fraud allegations date back to the days of another head coach sent by Arkansas — Houston Nutt. Or so says the linked account. The Nutt-related findings, against assistants, concern fraud on ACT testing of three recruits in 2010.